


Fire Pit

by chrissy2



Category: Boys Town - Fandom, Brothers Destiny (1995), The Road Home (1995)
Genre: M/M, No heat, Poor living conditions, clay and michael taking care of john, going to sleep with no food, iowa is cold and flat and empty, the financial struggles are too familiar, this was actually very hard for me to write, three orphans living together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-21 23:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12468608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrissy2/pseuds/chrissy2
Summary: The three orphans make with living together.





	Fire Pit

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing and I get no money.

**I**

It was the cheapest house they could find, and the night they moved in, it was cold as fuck. The fire pit at the heart really didn't heat it up at all, even when it burned all throughout the bloody night. Michael and Clay had given John their only blanket from Boys Town and one of their coats to sleep with while the two older boys dealt with sharing a coat and a mat, holding each other close in an attempt to get warm. They all kept their shoes on. It was the only way their feet wouldn't frost. No dinner before bed. They used all their savings to buy where they were sleeping.

 

**II**

_"I really want John to go to school."_

_"Murph, I don't think we can afford it. We're already in debt."_

_"He can't hardly read. Or count."_

_"You learn what you need to know while out in the streets. And through working."_

_"He's not fit for hard labor. He has a weak leg."_

_"He seemed to climb up that train just fine the night at the train station,"_ Clay smirked.

That was one of the times Michael gave him this look. He can't remember when it started; perhaps after their first fight back in the court yard. His eyes would shed the saddest of sorrows before shifting to normal and continuing, _"I just want him to be a normal kid."_

Clay could only agree to John's schooling if Michael was the one to pay for it, take him there and pick him up. He was too busy taking care of everything else.

 

**III**

Eventually, Clay found a job and so did Michael. Clay started welding and Michael found store work. It started off hard and frustrating, but progress was coming. Slowly, but surely. And Clay and Michael bickered just about everyday, all the time, usually about what was best for John. One time, Michael started a fight about Clay wanting to buy sweets as their dinner for that night because it was cheaper, but Michael thought something else would be healthier for his baby brother, something that wouldn't rot their teeth. (By that time, they hadn't properly brushed their teeth in about a week, two weeks?) Everything was always about John.

_"So let's just go deeper into debt?"_

_"We'll pay it off later. Just no sugar."_

_"We haven't eaten in days."_

_"Buy something else. I won't eat tonight. Just get something for you and John. You work the most and John'll get sickly if he doesn't eat soon."_

_"Oh, for the love of Pete..."_

_"I'll be fine. I'm stronger than John. And you need to keep your energy up for work."_

_"So do you. You work too."_

_"It's a store job. It's indoors. I don't need a lot of strength."_

They ended up buying a loaf of bread and splitting it amongst each other, giving John the most. Like usual.

 

**VI**

It turned out that in order to get warm, they needed to seal up some cracks in the walls and doors and fix the roof. While they thought of ways to fix it under their kind of budget, Clay tried to take up hunting. All he had was his pocket knife, so he had to learn how to sneak around real well. He never told Michael about the time he managed to get his hands on a rabbit and how he about cried thinking about having to just kill it with a knife to the throat. He let it go.

 

**VII**

Michael really lost his shit when he found Clay's bottle of whiskey hidden under a pile of rocks beside the house.

**" _So I can't let John have a fucking education, but you can get drunk!_ "**

**" _I earned that money and I pay the fucking bills. I do what I want with it."_  **

**" _Fuck you!_ "**

_"You listen to me. You couldn't get to John without my help, and you **barely** made it to Boys Town. You wouldn't have gotten there if it wasn't for me, a bunch of stinking hobos and a change of heart from some old bat. All you had was pure luck, Murphy." _

_"If you hate me so much, then why did you beg me to live with you, huh?"_

_"I didn't beg."_

_"You were about to cry. You can't be on your own either. **Now who has a bleeding heart."**_

The only thing that kept Clay from bashing Michael's face in or walking out on him and leaving them forever was that same old look Michael gave him, those sorrowful eyes. And then Clay grew so confused about what to do next that he just scoffed and sat down by the fire pit. 

 

**VIII**

It was an unspoken pact to never fight in John's presence. Whenever Michael brought John home, they all just sat by the fire pit and enveloped themselves in the fantasy of a little boy and his two older brothers in perfect harmony - playing games and Clay telling funny stories about the ridiculous times in the orphanage way back when. Michael and him could've had a risky, heated blow out earlier that day about possibly moving to another state and starting over or about John needing new clothes or a puppy to play with because Michael was worried he wasn't making any friends at school - but they made sure John would never know. 

 

**IX**

Sometimes Clay had dreams of finally being fed up with Michael's shit and walking out on them. The Murphys ended up starving to death, frozen solid on their house floor, but what made Clay wake up in cold sweat was what happened to himself in the dream. It would always end with him starving and dying from hypothermia in the streets. The false heat he felt before death was very real, and the hallucinations. He would then see a smiling John and Michael by their fire pit, and then think,  _I need to go home..._

 

**X**

_"Have you washed the clothes today?"_

_"No?"_

_"It's your turn."_

_"Murph, I'm exhausted. I've been outside all day. We worked over time."_

_"Well, I'm tired too. Forget it. I'll do it."_

_"Let me help."_

_"No, you're tired. You do the most work."_

_"Helping with the laundry won't kill me."_

_"We need to teach John how to do this. I don't think he knows how to..."_

_"Just let him be a kid a little longer. Besides, that kid gets tired at the end of the day too. He studies really hard."_

_"He's always been a smart kid."_

_"Smarter than **you.** "_

_"I can imagine him being something big."_

_"All children have the potential to be great. It's a little too late for us."_

_"That's alright with me."_

 

**XI**

There was one unpleasant memory in particular, when a stormy night resulted in a large sticky puddle across the floor, rolling over and soaking up where they slept. Clay and Michael then fought over who would clean it up and how to clean it up and they were in a horrible mood until the dark hours descended upon them, when the world stopped and they all just sat around the fire pit and talked and laughed.

The night really was their saving grace.

 

**XI**

Another way Clay could actually talk about money with Michael without killing him was by kissing him, thrusting his tongue inside and shutting him up, reaching down and tossing him off as he did.

It's funny how that day went about: While on a lunch break, Clay was approached by a prostitute, much to his disgust. He liked sex, and he enjoyed the idea of sex even more, but he had heard of 'strange diseases' and 'certain regrets' of the days after with nymphos. He actually saw the lumpy results in the locker rooms in the orphanage way back when and it kept him abstinent for the longest time - just himself and his thoughts in the lonely hours.

Clay knew Michael wasn't seeing anybody either, and it was pretty obvious he was a virgin, so why the hell not?

Clay never really thought himself as queer, but he had thought about it in the past. But really, it wasn't about being straight or queer, desperate or confused, it was about being a human being with needs; a human being that would lose their goddamn mind if they continued being bored out of their skull and wanting to kill his housemate when he wasn't bored.

 

**XII**

_"What are you thinking about?"_

_"Hm?"_

_"Something's bothering you. Something **has** been bothering you for months and you won't tell me."_

 

**To be continued.**


End file.
